Category: General Sermons (page 1 of 2)

Turning the other cheek     The Gospel and Les Miserables

Victor Hugo’s great novel Les  Misérables is employed to throw light on the ideal and complexity of Jesus’ extraordinary saying about turning the other cheek.

Sermon by the Rev’d Charles Waldegrave at St Peter’s, Wellington
23    February 2025                                                     

___________________

That was a pretty tough Gospel we had this morning. “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.” (Luke 6. 29). Let’s up-date this message a bit. That’s like saying, If someone scams your current account, give them your savings account as well.” Oooh ouch, that hurts just thinking bout it. Is that what Jesus meant? Is this for real?

It is also like saying to Ukrainian people, Russia has taken Crimea and much of the Donbas region, offer them Kiev as well. Earlier, he had said, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6. 27-28) How does that go down in Ukraine?  Is this fair? Is it sensible? He also said, “If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.”  

Well, had Jesus lost the plot here, or was the message deeper and more complex than a cursory or quick reading might imply? Was he being literal, or was he exaggerating, using hyperbole to make a point? Was he trying to point to another way of looking at relationships and how we treat each other. All of these things have been debated since he first said these words.

Jesus wasn’t a literalist. He often spoke in parables. These were stories, narratives if you like, that captured people’s interest and expressed a point he was trying to get across without him saying it directly. 

After agreeing with a lawyer, for example, that the essence of faith is about loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself, he told the story of the Good Samaritan. At that time most Jews hated Samaritans and most Samaritans hated Jews. There were many reasons for this which I don’t have time to go into here. It is suffice to say events by both peoples took place that deeply upset the others. Jews upset Samaritans and Samaritans upset Jews. 

On that occasion, Jesus didn’t tell people directly that they needed to be more forgiving of each other. He simply told the parable of the Good Samaritan where the person who was kind to the man attacked by thieves was a Samaritan, and he helped a Jew despite the distrust and hatred between the two peoples. By contrast, their religious leaders walked past the man and left him suffering. People would have been astounded that he was actually implying in the story that a despised Samaritan was closer to God than their own religious leaders because he showed both love and mercy. He loved his enemy! He turned his other cheek!

The French novelist Victor Hugo told a wonderful story about love, forgiveness, mercy and justice in one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century, and probably of all time in his book Les Miserable. Like Dickens in England, at much the same time, he wanted to show how unfair and unjust French society was to the lower classes where most people lived. How the structures in that society constantly turned good and innocent people into beggars and criminals in a way that ruined their lives. He particularly wanted to see reforms in education, criminal justice, and the treatment of women. 

As with Jesus, Hugo didn’t usually tell people what he considered was needed directly. He told wonderful stories that left people to think of the implications.  Les Miserable has so captured people’s imagination, that it has been adapted to film, television, the stage, and of course the famous musical. There have been multiple adaptions of these various media. I have only time to tell parts of the story.

It begins with Jean Valjean who had just served nineteen years on a chain gang in a local prison in France. He had been sentenced to 5-years for stealing bread for his starving sister and her family, and then received 14 more years for numerous attempted escapes. Since his release, he had been constantly turned away by innkeepers because he had to carry a yellow passport that states he was a former convict. He sleeps on the street, and is angry and bitter.

The local Bishop of Digne gives Jean shelter in his house when no one else will. However, at night he steals some of the silverware and runs off. The police later capture him with the silverware. He lies and says they were a gift from the Bishop. The police take him to the Bishop to check his story, and the Bishop pretends he had given the silverware in order to protect Jean. The police accept the story. The Bishop then lets him keep the silverware and gives him two silver candlesticks in addition, suggesting he had forgotten to take them. Jean Valjean realises he has been given a chance to regain his soul. The Bishop says he should use money from the silver candlesticks to make an honest man of himself. He decides to start a new life. He changes his identity, breaks parole, and rips up the yellow card.

To cut a long story with many sub-plots short, 8 years later Jean is a factory owner and mayor of a small town. One of the workers in the factory is a woman named Fantine. She has a secret illegitimate child named Cosette living with a nasty innkeeper and his family in another town. Her secret is then discovered by the other women in the factory and they demand she be dismissed. The foreman, whose advances she had earlier rejected, fires her. 

She has no income and needs to pay for medicine for her sick daughter. She sells a locket, then all her hair, and eventually becomes a prostitute. Her new profession disgusts her and when she refuses a prospective customer, he claims she attacked him. She was about to be sent to prison as a result of this accusation, when the Mayor Jean Valjean steps in and insists she be sent to hospital instead. He recognised her from when she worked in his factory and promises to help her. But Fantine is dying, so Jean promises to take care of Cosette.

Cosette by this time had lived with the innkeeper’s family for 5 years and had been treated very badly. Jean pays them off and takes Cosette away. He looks after her really well but doesn’t tell her about his past. 9-years later they are in Paris and Cosette and a student Marius have fallen in love. Marius is involved in a just student uprising against the Authorities. After various battles, most of the students are killed. However, Marius survives because Jean Valjean saves him, although he was too wounded to know. The lovers then marry and through a series of events they both learn about Jean’s past and all the ways he has cared for them and Cosette’s mother. Jean then dies peacefully and is joined by the spirit of Fantine and those who had passed in the student uprising.

I have shared parts of this novel because they help us understand the style of Jesus’ teaching in our gospel today. As Jesus spoke in parables, Victor Hugo spoke in novels and poetry. 

When the Bishop of Digne had his silverware stolen, he offered the silver candlesticks as well. Let me repeat that because it parallels the Gospel call. When the Bishop of Digne had his silverware stolen, he offered the silver candlesticks as well. 

The action changed a man’s life because he experienced mercy and forgiveness. Having found a place in society where he was accepted, he then showed mercy himself, when he promised Fantine when she was dying, that he would look after and protect Cosette. He did so, and she in turn was able to escape poverty, gain an education and live a secure life. 

Had the Bishop confirmed the theft of the silverware, an angry man who had already been badly betrayed by society, would have been returned to prison. In that story, Fantine would have died with a broken heart for her daughter and a sense of betrayal by all those around her. Cosette would have been condemned to poverty and maltreatment with little hope of any upward social mobility. 

When Jesus said, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also” and “If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.”  I am quite sure he wasn’t speaking literally about every time we are struck or someone steals our possessions. I think he was saying something like, don’t move quickly to simply defend yourself and punish the person. We need to try and understand what is going on for them and address that. We should de-centre ourselves and our own wishes. If someone stoops as low as common assault, they obviously have problems. Payback and revenge can extend the conflict. Imprisonment often turns into a school for crime and future criminal activities. These are not always constructive ways to address the problem.

This is not to say, there is no place for prisons, nor that we should allow assault and theft. Jesus lived in a society much more like Victor Hugo’s, than ours today, where poorer people could be judged and imprisoned very quickly and very unfairly. The stories of some of the petty crimes, convicts were sent to Australia for, also come to mind.  There was no opportunity for redress. 

Although Jesus told us to love our enemies, he also said in a different context, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” If he considered something was unjust, he too could be quite prescriptive, and withering.

There isn’t a correct answer for understanding these difficult passages. They simply lift us to an ideal which we should chew on as Victor Hugo did so brilliantly. The context will always be important, as will be the life of the person who slaps us or steals from us. Somehow, we have to get beyond ourselves and our possessions and look for the greatest common good. Generosity, love and mercy reflect the character of God. That’s a great place to start when weighing these matters.

The Prodigal Son Luke 15.11-32
Sermon at St Peter’s Wellington, 30.3.25
Bishop Richard Randerson
richardrandersonnz [at] gmail.com

Best known of Jesus’ parables? Known as the prodigal son, also the lost son and the waiting father.
Three characters – father, elder and younger brothers (But think more
inclusively of parents and siblings).
KEY QUESTION: With whom do we
identify?

Prodigal Son– lavish, wild spending. wine, women and song. Deserted by friends.

Do we identify with him, past or present??

Lost son – types of “lost”

• Wild and profligate living
• Illness, grief, bereavement
• Unemployed, homeless, poor
• Being lost to family member or friend
• Lost our way, purpose in living
• For me — as curate vocational crisis

Most of us could identify with some loss, past or present.

The Waiting Father (or mother)

• Grief-stricken, but always hoping
• Dashes out to meet his boy
• Waves aside the apology
• Lavish clothing, ring, shoes, party

Do we identify with the father?

• Yes, we can remember when God’s love embraced us. Brought us home when we were lost.
• Yes, we can aspire to be equally lavish with love and generosity to those who are lost. (But how far does it go?)

The elder brother (or sister)

• Would not join the party
• Remrandt painting – son in background. (see online)
• V30-brother to father –“your son”.
  • father to son – “your brother”.
• St Peter’s study group- most identified with older brother
• Worked hard, achieving, no rewards.
• Not realising richness of what we have
• Translate this into national politics and see why we have entrenched poverty. “We worked hard, so should they”.

We can identify with all three characters

• We all know lostness
• We can all know the bitterness of missing out
• We can all know the fullness of God’s love and share it with
  others.

Rewards? = Parties good but ultimately

31  “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 

---

St Peter’s Church, Wellington, 22 Sept 2024

Bishop Richard Randerson, richardrandersonnz@gmail.com

Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō is a name we will become familiar with following the accession of the new Māori Queen. Literally the name means ‘waters connecting in the night’. There are connotations here of rivers connecting, tribes connecting and the waters of baptism with all these connections illuminating the night or dark. Her family name is Paki.

It was a very moving ceremony with the river voyage to Taupiri Maunga as the nation marked the passing of Kingi Tūheitia and the anointing of his 27-year old daughter as the new kuini.  (Queen Elizabeth II was 25 when she ascended the throne). There are here themes of death and resurrection.  Kingi Tūheitia passes while Kuini Ngā Wai hono i te pō arises bringing new life and hope for all.

Her family send their children to Anglican schools because of their focus on spirituality and academic standards. Ngā Wai hono i te pō learnt te reo and attended Waikato Diocesan School for girls. She holds a Masters degree in Māori cultural studies from Waikato University.

Archbishop David Moxon said the Tainui royal family are supporters of the Pai Mārire faith which has elements of ecology, faith and love. They do not see this as contradictory to Christianity. They have a Cross on their coat of arms and invited the Māori Archbishop Don Tamihere to officiate and preach. His reference to the Politic of Love was powerful.

In today’s Gospel (Mark. 9.30-37) while Jesus is talking about how he would suffer, die and rise again his disciples were arguing about who was the greatest — a perennial debate globally, corporately, politically and personally in the world today.

Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be last, and the servant of all.” He speaks of the nature of servanthood. He took a little child and said to them:  “Whoever welcomes of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me  welcomes the one who sent me.”

All are equal in God’s eyes and not ranked by age, race, gender, power, honours or wealth — these are the world’s standards. True leadership is about humility and trust in God, serving by listening with empathy and having the wisdom to build consensus that leads to love in action. Māori call it mana and I believe we already see that mana in Ngā Wai hono i te pō.

At a time when partnership with Māori is being widely eroded these events by the grace of God remind us all of the foundational treaty covenant with Māori in this land.   

And what of our three-tikanga Church?  Dame Joan Metge, an anthropologist who was part of this congregation for many years, had strong links with iwi at Ahipara at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach. During that time we would meet on occasions for shared worship, kai and kōrero with the Pōneke Māori pastorate. 

So today let us remember Jesus’ teaching about servanthood. Let us pray for Ngā Wai hono i te pō. Let us pray for all leaders and for ourselves that we may remember Jesus’ words that the one who wants to be first must be the servant of all. Let us conclude with a Māori proverb: nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi —with your food basket and my food basket all will thrive (everyone has something to offer and by weaving it all together we can all flourish). 

A detailed analysis by Charles Waldegrave of the risks to Te tiriti posed by the coalition government and linked to Luke 4.18.

Today is the closest Sunday to Waitangi Day this year. A new Coalition government has won a fair election, but it is about to roll back substantial Treaty-based developments, which they claim will strengthen the principles of liberal democracy, equal citizenship, and parliamentary sovereignty. This is highly controversial and is already the primary focus of debate at
Waitangi.

To ensure we are dealing with the facts, I refer to the two Coalition Agreements. These are quotations that relate directly to the implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi in policy and law.
Coalition Agreement New Zealand National Party & New Zealand First (signed by the Prime Minister and Rt. Hon. Winston Peters – extracts)

• Abolish the Māori Health Authority.
• Legislate to make English an official language of New Zealand.
• Ensure all public service departments have their primary name in English, except for those specifically related to Maori.
• Require the public service departments and Crown Entities to communicate primarily in English except those entities specifically related to Maori.
• The Coalition Government will reverse measures taken in recent years which have eroded the principle of equal citizenship, specifically we will:
  • Remove co-governance from the delivery of public services.
  • As a matter of urgency, issue a Cabinet Office circular to all central
  • government organisations that it is the Government’s expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need, not race.
  • Conduct a comprehensive review of all legislation ….. that includes ‘The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi’ and replace all such references with specific words relating to the relevance and application of the Treaty, or repeal the references.

New Zealand National Party & ACT New Zealand (signed by the Prime Minister and Hon. David Seymour – extracts)

• The Coalition Government’s priorities for this term include ending race -based policies.
• Disestablish the Māori Health Authority.

Strengthening Democracy
To uphold the principles of liberal democracy, including equal citizenship and parliamentary sovereignty, the Parties will:

• Remove co-governance from the delivery of public services.
• Issue a Cabinet Office circular to all central government organisations that it is the Government’s expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need, not race, within the first six months of Government.
• Restore the right to local referendum on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards, including requiring a referendum on any wards established without referendum at the next local body elections.
• Introduce a Treaty Principles Bill based on existing ACT policy and support it to a Select Committee as soon as practicable

This is a historic time in Aotearoa. To put this in perspective, I want to highlight four matters that I think there is a general agreement about in New Zealand. These are:

• Firstly, that the British colonised New Zealand primarily to extend their empire and take advantage of the resources of the land, sea, and forests.
• Secondly, in doing so, Māori were largely dispossessed of their land and other resources, frequently through dishonourable processes, including land confiscations, and unjustifiable land purchases that were deemed legal by the governments and courts of the day.
• Thirdly, Māori have consistently sought justice through Te Tiriti o Waitangi, signed by the Crown and the majority of Māori chiefs in 1840, by identifying the widespread injustices they have experienced in both law and practice since the colonisation of New Zealand, and pointed to the resulting negative outcomes in terms of health status, education, and economic resources, they experience.
• And fourthly, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the founding document of the modern nation of Aotearoa New Zealand, and its increasing influence to help us redress (at least in part) some of the wrongs of the past and place us on a fairer path to share our future together, is a valuable and important development.

Well, that valuable and important development is being challenged, not by a bunch of protesters, but by our government, the highest lawmakers in this land. They have a majority in our Parliament and they have already signed up to those agreements I read earlier. They have agreed to interfere with the treaty-inspired momentum and reverse it, at least in part.

This has occurred without consultation with Māori who have worked for nearly 125 years to achieve the momentum for their own justice, as the critical gatherings at Ngāruawāhia, Rātana, and Waitangi have, and are, continuing to show.

Our gospel today says:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4.18)

This is not a minor saying in Luke’s Gospel. This is the announcement by our Lord to his people of his ministry. It is his statement of what his anointing by the Holy Spirit is about. So, it is important for us to understand what this means for us in our lives at this time in this country. I would like to put before you four questions concerning the partnership agreement of the Treaty of Waitangi that I think are relevant to this passage:

1. He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Which of Māori and tauiwi (not Māori) experience the most poverty, and who is poor in relation to the other?
2. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Who are the most arrested, most charged, and most incarcerated of those two groups, Māori and tauiwi?
3. Recovery of sight for the blind. Who has the worst health outcomes of those two groups?
4. To set the oppressed free. Which group has fewer choices, fewer resources, and greater restrictions on their lives?

Now, if your answer to the four questions is ‘Māori’, then the good news of freedom, Jesus speaks of, is for processes and momentum that work for them to ensure they move out of poverty, experience lower incarceration rates, better health status, and gain a fairer share of New Zealand’s resources.

And if you further accept that the increasing influence of Te Tiriti o Waitangi helps us redress (at least in part) some of the wrongs of the past, and places us on a fairer path to share our future together, then that momentum may well be part of the work of the Holy Spirit in the world that brings good news and freedom.

Further still, if you see these recent political developments as potentially threatening that good news and freedom, then the important question to ask is, ‘what can I do as a Christian and a citizen in this democracy to help stop the reversal of this momentum?’

From an applied theological perspective, what is going on in the law and policy-making process in our parliament at the moment is relevant to us as contemporary Christians. We need to consider what we can do as individuals, with groups and as a church to support that which will enable an honouring of the Treaty, by addressing the wrongs of the past and ensuring that the health, housing, educational, and income outcomes will be at least as good for Māori as for all other groups in our society.

We have heard read today part of the great story of Wiremu Tāmihana Tarapīpipi Te Waharoa. He worked tirelessly to see the Treaty honoured through having a major role in the development of the King Movement, advocating for his people with military and political leaders, and writing and petitioning frequently. He knew it would be a long battle. As we heard, his last words in 1866 were, ‘My children, I die, but let my words remain. Obey the laws of God and man.”

As with so many Māori, he saw the Treaty as Covenant, Te Kawenata. It is often referred to as ‘Te Kawenata’ in Māoridom. I was going to speak of the Treaty as Covenant for this sermon, and I will one day, but on this occasion it has taken a different shape. I only have time to finish by noting that ‘kawenata’ refers to the covenant between God and Israel in the Old Testament. It also refers to the Old Testament as ‘Kawenata tawhito’ when translated into Māori, and the New Testament as ‘Kawenata hou’. It carries a sense of tapu or sacredness that is often missing in English descriptions.

There is a lot at stake with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This is definitely a time when we should all think long and hard about it. There will be differing views, but I suspect many will not want to see the Treaty momentum diluted or reversed even in part. Thinking long and hard goes beyond intellectual reflection. Consider whether you want to join with others to act on your reflections. It is, after all, your democratic right.

Charles Waldegrave

Homily at the memorial service for Bishop Bruce Gilberd
St George’s church, Thames
19 January 2024
Bishop Richard Randerson

It was a hot December night 29 years ago in Goulburn cathedral. It was the occasion of my episcopal ordination and I was very grateful that Bruce had agreed to be the preacher that night. And so it is with a sense of reciprocity and humbleness that I have been asked to preach today on this very different occasion.

I have known Bruce for 62 years from St John’s College days, through shared years in industrial mission in England and Aotearoa, and with lives interwoven ever since.

How many have his book One Thought for Today? – very many I see. The book has 365 daily reflections, and I see it as a compendium of all Bruce has been:

• Daily reference to scripture
• Earthed in the many events of his life and relationships
• Vocation and pilgrimage
• A challenging question and a prayer
• All woven together so that the watermarks of faith are seen in daily living. Bruce liked to talk of divine watermarks in life.
  

Revelation 21 1-7 The text Bruce chose for today.

• A new heaven and a new earth
• Note the location. The holy city coming down from heaven It is here. God dwells with us.
• I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Note that the end means goal or purpose, telos, not a terminus, destruction or death. Death shall be no more.

Footnotes refer back to Isaiah. The prophet writes:

• They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks
• Isa 65: New heaven and earth where people will live long lives
• They shall build houses and live in them
• They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit
• They shall not bear children for calamity – a poignant note when we think today of Gaza, Ukraine and other places.

So our mission and discipleship is to build the new heaven and a new earth with the watermarks of faith, justice, peace, truth, compassion and being kaitiaki of all creation.

Rev 21.7: Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. These are words of aspiration and promise to Jesus’ disciples.

• Resurrection: Bruce wanted us to be clear on this and we can do no better than reflect on the life-changing encounters the disciples had with the risen Jesus:
• That first morning at the tomb when Jesus said to Mary Magdalene “Mary” and she replied “Rabboni’ – teacher
• Then Thomas who came to the locked room with the disciples and seeing Jesus’ wounds said “My Lord and my God”
• The disciples on the Emmaus road whose heart burned within them as a stranger explained the scriptures to them and became known to them in the breaking of the bread.
• The BBQ breakfast on the beach and it was John who first saw the stranger and said It is the Lord. Peter jumped in the water and went ashore while Jesus cooked some of the 153 fish they had caught. I’m sure Bruce could have explained the 153 fish to us.

On these encounters the Church was built and we know resurrection to be a reality in our own lives today, in the midst of joy and sorrow Jesus comes to us as our constant companion, offering renewed life and hope out of sorrow and loss – not quickly, not easily, but assuredly.

Our hearts reach out today Pat at this time. 60 years married to Bruce. A long life of love and partnership. And also to Catherine and James, Stephen and Michelle, Paul and Jo and the mokopuna Zachary, Lily and Charlie.

May you be sustained by God’s continuing presence and healing love, and know that Bruce remains with you still, and with us all, in the communion of saints.

Henry Nelson Wieman wrote of life after death as hope without prediction. We cannot predict the details of what lies beyond death, but we have hope in the full Christian sense of confidence that in life and in death we are with God.

Into your hands, O Lord, I commit my Spirit. Bruce and I shared Jesus’ words from the Cross a couple of weeks ago. I use them every night before sleeping. They are words of trust and confidence that God is with us in life and in death and beyond death, words we can use daily and finally.

So Bruce, go from us in peace but remain with us still.

Haere, haere, haere atu ra.

May you rest in peace, and may that peace sustain us all.

 Abraham and Isaac: sacrifice and reward

 (Genesis 22.1-140. Matthew 10.40-42)

St Peter’s Wellington; 2 July 2023

Bishop Richard Randerson

Today’s first reading a shocker! What sort of God would require child sacrifice?

Yet this is what God asked of Abraham, to sacrifice his son Isaac. This was about 1900 BC or BCE (before the common era, as we say today).  It was in the age of the patriarchs of Israel: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (and their wives Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel).

Child sacrifice for sin was part of the culture of those days. God was testing Abraham’s faith. Was his loyalty to God such that he would sacrifice even his only son? Was he fit to lead God’s people to be a light to the nation?

Abraham passed the test and the Lord stayed the execution, thus outlawing child sacrifice as having no place in God’s will.

We also note Isaac’s obedience as successor to his father Abraham. Note too God’s grace in providing a ram for sacrifice:  the place was called “God will provide”, in Hebrew. Jehovah Jireh. Abraham worshipped God there.

The chapter goes on:

• Israel will become as numerous as the stars in the sky or as the grains of sand on a beach
• It will offer redemption to all nations (noted again in Isaiah 49)
• A land is promised – Canaan
• Jacob’s son Joseph becomes prominent with Pharaoh in Egypt and brings his family there. After 500 years there Moses leads the exodus hrough 40 years in the wilderness back to the promised land of Canaan(C 1400-1300 BCE).

Does God’s call to sacrifice have a parallel with Jesus’ death? Yes and No

In one way YES:

• Jesus’ death on the cross was seen as the ultimate sacrifice to end all previous repetitive sacrifices.
• Jesus seeks the same 100% loyalty of his followers (Peter: “you are the Christ, the son of the living God”).
•  And Jesus’ death and resurrection also offers redemption to all nations.

But in a major way NO:

• God is a God of love, not punishment. No price has to be paid for sin. Jesus did not die for our sins. The concept of sacrifice for sin is superseded.
• Jesus’ death was not required by God, although it was foreseen by Isaiah in the suffering servant figure.
• Jesus’ death resulted from a conspiracy of evil forces – political, religious and the crowd.  Jesus spoke truth to power and was a threat to be eliminated.  Jesus chose to drink the cup of suffering.

Anglican theologian Tom Wright says the power of victimhood overthrows the power of the sword. The concept here is one of martyrdom – that those who suffer in the cause of justice and love become a witness for the faith to others. In Jesus such suffering and its life-changing power is held up for all to see.

For a brilliant podcast on Tom Wight’s new book on Paul, in dialogue with Tom Holland, enter online YouTube Tom Holland and Tom Wright   – 58 mins but worth every second.

Today’s gospel continues the theme from Genesis that we are all called into an unqualified relationship with God:

• We become one with God through Christ.
•  It is not earned – it is pure gift; spontaneous, like love between two people
• “Rewards” to the prophets and righteous people are also pure gift (cf the labourers in vineyard Matthew 20.1-16)
• “The prophet’s reward” includes also exposure to persecution.
• The cup of water given to the least includes all on the margins in life and community. It also is pure gift with no return needed or sought.

So what is the take home message?

• Each of us is called/invite into a central relationship with God
• Love is at the heart – pure mutual gift
• We are called to proclaim God’s word and reach out to the community in mission
• The Church IS mission, not just a programme run by the church. Just as a fire exists by burning. (Cf Richard Niebuhr in Christ and Culture: mission is not saving people OUT of the world but building God’s reign IN the world).
• We witness in our workplace, community, and personal networks by the kind of people we are – sensitive, compassionate, speaking the truth and working for justice.
• The Rev. Wendy Scott’s research showed that sharing faith with others occurs most naturally in context of meeting them at their point of need eg. in a conversation about needs and relationships, illness or loss..
• In all of this we are sustained by worship, prayer and meditation.

Over 2000 years our understanding of God has grown:

• God does not require sacrifices for sin, let alone child sacrifices
• God is a God of love, not retribution.
• We are called to be channels of that love.

St Peter’s church, Wellington. 13 November 2022

Recently Dr. Andrew Shepherd, theologian at Otago University, led a seminar Living faithfully in the Anthropocene.

There have been various eras and epochs in Earth’s history measured by geologic substructures (deposits in rocks) For example the Ice age, stone age and bronze age. We currently live in the Holocene era dating back 11,700 years.

The Anthropocene era is an unofficial term coined around 2000, the key point being that this is the first era in which humankind (anthropos) has a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Examples are the industrial revolution with its smoke and toxic smog, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl, the hole in the ozone layer, global pollution of land and sea and climate change

Some have coined it the Capitalocene erain which the pursuit of financial capital drives greed and self-interest.

The message is that we are destroying our own habitat, as highlighted by those poignant images of polar bears struggling to survive on diminishing ice-floes.  How should humanity respond? Our calling is to save the planet not just selfishly for our own survival but for the inherent wellbeing of God’s creation in its own right. Nature is not a resource bank for humanity to plunder.

Cop27 is warning that we are heading for the end times for Planet Earth. And in today’s Gospel (Luke 21:5-19) Jesus also speaks of end times

• The temple will be destroyed
• Earthquakes, fires, famines, pestilences
• Nations will rise against nations

On account of Jesus’ name his followers will be persecuted, betrayed and arrested but will be given words and wisdom to resist their opponents and be witness to him. Jesus says that those who stand firm will win life.

This is apocalyptic literature – revealing God’s will

• Eg Ezekiel, Daniel, the Gospels. Revelation
• Post Jesus there was extensive persecution of Christians by Rome.
• Apocalyptic parts of the Bible are coded messages to Christians to stand firm
• Today neoliberal powers of greed and self-interest are the evils that confront us
• There are amazing parallels between today’s Gospel and the realities of the climate crisis ….
• earthquakes, floods, fires and famines
• Pacific nations sinking
• Greta Thunberg and other climate activists are persecuted
• The Anthropocene era is at work.

But humankind has the capacity to fashion the Earth for good: God gives us a different vision (Isaiah 65:17-25)

• There will be a new heaven and new earth
• No more will the sound of weeping be heard in your land
• People will build houses and dwell in them
• They will plant vineyards and eat the fruit
• They will not bear children for calamity
• They will neither harm nor destroy in all my holy mountain
• These same words appear again in Revelation 21 and 22

God shows us a different end – not a fiery termination but End as a goal- a new heaven and new earth here on this planet. And as Christians living in the Anthropocene you and I are called to be co-creators with God in making it happen.

    *      *      *

Bishop Ellie’s translation from Wellington to Hull opens new vistas in mission

I was blown away when I learned of the appointment of Bishop Ellie (the Rt Rev’d Dr Eleanor Sanderson) to be the next bishop of Hull. I’ve not been to Hull but 50 years ago I worked for a year with the Teesside Industrial Mission, to the North – a similar region with port, river,industry, city and charming rural areas.

 Hull is in the East Riding of Yorkshire and  Bishop Ellie will be working with the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who led the Anglo-Catholic hui in Wellington a couple of years ago.

In Greek there are two words for time: one is chronos, as in chronological time. The other is kairos, and I believe Bishop Ellie’s appointment is a kairos– the right person in the right place at the right time – God’s time. She will have a pastoral and parish role but also a much wider role in the community and national church.

Further south an Iranian woman, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, is Bishop of Chelmsford and a member of the House of Lords. Bishop Guli plays a lead role in Housing both in the House of Lords as well as on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Housing Commission. The plan is that every piece of church land in England will be evaluated for social housing. A similar project is under way in New Zealand.

I have no doubt that Bishop Ellie and Bishop Guli will have much in common.

So there is a big picture, but it is part of the even bigger picture painted for us by St Paul in his letter to the Colossians (1. 15-28). Here is the ultimate picture of:

• God in all Creation
• Jesus the first-born of creation
• Thrones, powers and rulers all hold together in him
• Christ,the head of the body, the Church
• All things and all people reconciled to Christ through his blood on the cross.

Manifestly, this is not the case. Evil and sin abound. The world, nations, races, and families are not reconciled. Culture clashes are widespread. Death, war, poverty, environmental degradation and the challenge of climate change surround us on all sides.

What we have in Colossians is our missional challenge.  It is aspirational, a vision of what is possible in Christ, God’s ultimate purpose for the world, along with a calling to each of us in our Christian discipleship.

And each one us, once distant from God, has now become reconciled to God in Christ, and like Paul called to make known the word of God in all its fullness, the richness of this mystery in Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Today’s Gospel (Luke 10.38-42) brings all this down to earth with the well-known story of Martha and Mary:

• We synpathise with Martha, serving refreshments while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet
• (Did they perhaps swap halfway through and Mary washed the dishes while Martha sat at Jesus’ feet?!)
• Whatever, we can see in the story the importance of both the inward and outward journey – sitting at Jesus’ feet to deepen our relationship with God, and then lovingly going out to serve others.

Here is a picture we are all part of:

• St Peter’s – a worshipping community
• our open doors, outreach to the community, feeding the hungry, working on housing and other needs of Te Aro.

The ministry of the laity in the work-place, home and community stems from this same Pauline vision. But too often the church get things the wrong way round: the laity end up helping the clergy run the church instead of the clergy equipping the laity to be the spear-heads of God’s mission in the world.

All of us in our daily life and work, by every word, act of compassion, reconciliation, naming injustices, work to make Paul’s great vision in Colossians a reality in our world in our time.

As we pray for +Ellie as Bishop of Hull, and for ourselves in the mission we all share, I have the words of a hymn in mind:

Thine is the loom, the forge, the mart,
The wealth of land and sea,
The worlds of science and of art,
Revealed and ruled by Thee.

Then let us prove our heavenly birth
In all we do and know;
And claim the kingdom of the earth,
For Thee, and not Thy foe.

Work shall be prayer, if all be wrought
As Thou would have it done;
And prayer, by Thee inspired and taught,
Itself with work be one.

AMR 13, Behold us, Lord, a little space…vv.4-6.

St Peter’s, Wellington, 17 July 2022

Bishop Richard Randerson

Finding the still point

In 1974 the late Henri Nouwen, teacher and writer of many spiritual books, spent 7 months in the Trappist Monastery of the Genesee in upstate New York. An inner restlessness drove him there. He writes in The Genesee Diary : “Maybe I spoke more about God than with him”.

In a full life as teacher and popular guest-speaker, he says he hated the busy-ness, but at the same time was dependent on it for his own self-esteem. When invitations did not come he felt bypassed and ignored. He asked : “Is there a still point where my life is anchored and from which I may reach out with hope and courage and confidence?”

At the Genesee Abbey the busy-ness was stripped away, and he was faced with his own inner life without outside distractions. Three times a week the Abbey produced 5000 loaves of “Monk’s Bread”. It was a very boring task which made Nouwen frustrated. “Manual work indeed unmasks my illusions. It shows how I am constantly looking for interesting, exciting, distracting activities to keep my mind busy and away from the confrontation with my nakedness, powerlessness, mortality and weakness.

“Uninteresting work confronts a monk with his unrelatedness, and it is in this confrontation that prayer can develop…. In prayer I can find a new sense of belonging since it is there I am most related.”

Nouwen also found that in his “stripped bare” situation he became disproportionately angry over small things – someone hadn’t thanked him; someone didn’t speak to him. Again he found that his sense of well-being depended on human recognition rather than God’s love. This experience drove him to search more deeply for God.

Nouwen’s life mirrors our own. At times we all feel an inner sense of restlessness, dissatisfaction, and a desire for deeper fulfilment in living. We are busy doing many things – good things, important things, but when they are stripped away, what remains? Faced with a broken relationship, redundancy, an empty nest, retirement, illness or bereavement, is there a “still point from which we can reach out with hope and courage?”

Recently I went on a clergy retreat for two days – my first for three years in which an extended period of transition had disrupted normal routines. I was beginning to feel I was running on empty, and the days on retreat allowed time apart for silence, reflection, prayer, and the regaining of a sense of God’s presence.

Silent prayer may be a bit threatening. How does one fill the time? What does one do? Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales, describes it as a time for stillness when there is an “awareness of a presence”, a sense that “you are held or attended to”. That sense of being held spiritually by God brings great release from anxiety, and one is filled with a sense of grace.

Jesus himself regularly practised times of prayer, coming apart from life to seek solitude with God. Alone in the desert with his Father he gained clarity of vision and assurance of God’s power for the ordeals that lay ahead. The late Bishop John Robinson described Jesus as a “window into God” – Jesus was so filled with the spirit of God that all who saw him saw the fullness of God. Jesus was styled Son of God because of this.

Over the years they travelled with him, the disciples likewise came to see God in Jesus. Today’s Gospel contains the powerful story of Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah, the chosen one, the Son of the Living God. In John’s version (6.66-69), Peter says: “You have the words of eternal life. And we have come to believe that you are the holy one who comes from God”.

These accounts are of people centreing on God : Jesus centres in on God in his times apart in the desert; the disciples centre on Jesus, seeing in him the fullness of God, and we too can practise such centreing ourselves, as Henri Nouwen sought to do at the Abbey of the Genesee. We likewise may experience God on a daily basis as that still point at the heart of life from which our true fulfilment stems.

While at the Genesee Abbey Nouwen received a letter from his father, a pensioner in Holland, who wrote : “As a man on pension you see the world recede. No one needs you any more…. Thus the Abbey will be a good preparation for that time…”

Since the young Nouwen was 25 years away from retirement, the letter seemed somewhat premature. But he interpreted it in a spiritual sense : “If in a spiritual sense I could retire now, that is, become independent of the success of my work, then I could probably live much more creatively and be much less vulnerable”.

One other reflection from his time at the Genesee was on prayer : “Compassion lies at the heart of our prayer for our fellow human beings…. I cannot embrace the world, but God can…. When God became as we are, that is, when God allowed all of us to enter into his intimate life, it became possible for us to share in his infinite compassion”. Prayer, then, becomes the way in which not only do we find our own true being in the compassion of God, but we become part of God’s all-embracing compassion for others.

Later in life that compassion drove Henri Nouwen to become part of the worldwide L’Arche communities which provide a home for those who are often described as “handicapped”, but whom community members regard as equal members of God’s family with gifts and compassion of their own.

The seven months that Henri Nouwen had apart in the Genesee Abbey may be a luxury most of us cannot arrange, but the setting apart of space for silence and prayer on a daily basis, aided by periodic quiet days and retreats, is as life-giving and necessary for us on our own spiritual journey as it was for Jesus in his.

Quotations from “The Genesee Diary : Report from a Trappist Monastery”,
by Henri Nouwen

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, NZ; 30 June 2002

Acts 17. 16-31

A stopover in Athens is not without its delights, as Jackie and I found on pilgrimage there.

For Paul, cooling his heels, waiting Silas and Timothy.

• A Pentecost story – the Church moving out to engage with the Gentiles.
• Goes into market-place – listens and observes
• Athenians open to anything new – cf 21C
• Distressed to find many idols
• “Stand for s.th or fall for a.th”
• Invited to Areopagus – council or hill
• Unknown God –“Just in case we missed one”

An unknown God – very powerful image. For God is mystery, and yet not unreal because of that. We don’t talk about unknown gods today, and yet the experience of something transcendent, something that lifts us up above the ordinary experiences of life, is quite common.

Think of ANZAC Day:  People felt lifted beyond themselves, into a new dimension of experience. But what sort of experience? What content would people put into this experience of mystery? Is it today’s equivalent of an unknown God?

Anzac remembers the sacrifice and suffering of thousands of our young, and others’ young. One person felt a connectedness with others. But is it for some a call to strengthen our military?  Or for others a commitment to global peace and justice?

Experiences of something transcendent may be filled with great good or downright evil. Nazism? What about nationalism? Or corporate spirit? Or school spirit? Or Jesus’ spirit of love and compassion?

The content of such experiences is all important. This was Paul’s challenge: how to preach Jesus into the empty “unknown god” space in Athens.

Not a soteriological brick!  (cf seed on barren ground)

• He listened, then preached into their context
• Epimenides: in him we live/move/ have our being.  Aratus: we too are his offspring
• Distinct crossovers here with Christian faith
• Bridges if you like for weaving faith in.
• >>Good news of Jesus and his resurrection.

Wendy Scott’s research: contextual sharing

At an ethics conference in Auckland, Professor Karen Lebacqx gave a paper on Medical Ethics. Many of her audience expected an overview of complex ethical issues in western medicine, such as gene transfer, or when does human life begin?  but Karen opened up a far wider perspective:

During the hour that I am speaking to you, 50 children will die in Africa of disease and malnutrition. Disease and malnutrition are the causes of these children’s deaths, but not the reasons for them. These children are dying because their governments are redirecting funds much needed for social services into the repayment of loans to wealthier nations….Their health status has to do with the systemic factors of justice and injustice around the world.

Karen introduced the parable spoken by the prophet Nathan to King David (2 Sam 12). The parable tells of a rich man who, although he had many flocks and herds of his own, took a poor man’s only ewe lamb to provide food for a guest. Her reference to Hebrew scripture had no sense of religious preaching about it. Having painted starkly the realities of the gap between rich and poor nations, she drew on an ancient prophetic voice to illustrate precisely a major contemporary injustice. She wove the message with the context.

Pentecost is a time for being infilled with God’s powerful spirit, and to feel the call to proclaim the Good News of salvation. It is a call to evangelism to people elsewhere, yes, but to those close to us, our neighbours, searching for something deeper, searching for comfort in distress, open to a call to ethical integrity and social justice, to reconciliation, care for the earth.

Let’s not throw them soteriological bricks, but let us listen carefully, and then weave in context the implications of Paul’s message in Athens: “What therefore you seek as unknown, I now proclaim to you, the Good News of Jesus who died and has risen again in our own lives.”